EDıTOR'S NOTE
The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations for the year 1992 is the second annual published in 1995. This volume is part of an accelerated effort to close a past gap of about a decade. The "Editor's Note" of the previous inclusive Yearbook summarized the reasons for the interval, which were beyond our control. The Yearbook for 1993, already at the printers, will follow shortly.
The present volume includes six articles, and book reviews as well as a chronology and a bibliography for the year under review. The fırst article of this volume is by Professor Dr. Hans Köchler, who examines the inconsistencies and incompatibilities of recent sanctions measures with regard to international law. His approach may be rephrased as a concem on behalf of the universal validity of human rights. Taking into account the ethical impermissibility of the sanctions policy, he calls for the further humanitarian development of international law, especially with regard to the rights and duties of the U.N. Security Council. Disputing the merits of the power politics approach, Dr. Köchler is among the few leading contemporary philosophers offering alternative theories of direct democracy applicable to the largest of ali social groups: the international society. His pioneering criticisms are coupled with constructive proposals that can make the multinational community a more democratically-based gathering.
Several of Professor Köchler's other works, printed elsewhere, deal with the basic concept of democracy and its aplication in the international system. Basing his theoretical approach on the Kantian concept of the autonomous subject, the author challenges, in several papers, the current ideology of the "New World Order", and critically deals with Francis Fukuyama's Hegelian (eschatological) conception of history. In general terms, he attempts to create an alternative doctrine of international politics and international law on the basis of this philosophical assumption.
Professor Dr. Clement H. Dodd, who closely followed the events in Cyprus, concludes, in his article on the recent political developments in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), that the policy orientation on
the Turkish Cypriot left and right are coming closer, and that the more extemal pressure is exerted on them, the more the Turks of the island become committed to their cause, and the more determined they seem in stressing their own right of self-determination and sovereignty. The author emphasizes the injustice the Turks of Cyprus and of Turkey feel at the treatment of the TRNC by the United Nations and the European Union in Greek Cypriot terms.
Professor Dr. Sina Akşin compares and evaluates two outstanding personalities, Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk, and Charles de Gaulle. The British rivals of the former had said about the Turkish soldier-statesman that such leaders come only once every century, and that it was the Turks' turn this time. The author compares the circumstances in Turkey and in France, and the remarkable guidance that boıh offered in times of crises.
Dr. A Clare Brandabur reevaluates Edmund Wilson's work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and fınds crippling bias in the book. She thinks that contempt for Arabs and Arab culture pervades the book. Everything Arab is perceived negatively, so much so that when he is forced to report some positive note, he uses double negatives to convey it
The first of my two articles, as the last ones in this collection, is on the rising racism in Europe, and the second on the serious limits that the Greek Government and society have put on the rights of the Turks of Western Thrace.
Under "Book Reviews", I presented and tried to evaluate six books, which I believe to be significant for our part of the world. The Yearbook for 1992 ends with a Chronology and a Bibliography for the year.
I take this opportunity, once again, to invite Turkish and foreign colleagues for contributions to the future annuals. Ali correspondence may kindly be addressed to the editör at the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara.
T. A.
